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The desire to spectate at traditional events and festivals in different countries is dying. From a marketing perspective, researchers and practitioners need to understand why people spectate at these conventional events and festivals. Data-driven marketing approaches can help event and festival marketing policymakers in attracting potential spectators. Drawing on attachment theory, the current study fills this void and explores fans' motivation and intentions to follow Kushti (i.e. traditional wrestling) events while developing a new event attachment scale (EAS).

Three comprehensive studies were conducted. First, an exploratory study where 12 retired wrestlers, considered hardcore fans of Kushti were interviewed. The collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Second, a pilot study (n = 204) was performed leading to a main survey (n = 365). The survey data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques.

Results revealed five types of attachments (i.e., ground attachment, game attachment, emotional attachment, cultural attachment and player attachment). An important intervention is the unique elements within each of these attachments, which may motivate fans to follow traditional gaming events. The new scale offers excellent psychometric properties.

Event and festival marketers should consider the role of tradition while marketing such events. The retired wrestlers can be used as influences/reference points to attract visitors to spectate at Kushti events. Furthermore, facilities such as smooth roads, approachable grounds and excellent service operations during these events can help policymakers to attract more spectators.

The study is unique in contextualizing Kushti and presenting a unique scale to measure fans' motivations and intentions to follow traditional gaming events.

Little is known about the variations in service co-creation on social media, despite the resource integrating capabilities and co-creator roles afforded by these platforms. The gap is even more troubling in the nonprofit sector, where leveraging public interaction on social media is prevalent and vital to charitable and philanthropic endeavors. Arguably, such interaction is embedded in resource integrating activities leading to nonprofit service co-creation. This paper reports the forms, dimensions or service co-creation measures enabled by social media use in the nonprofits' sector.

The authors conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods design. First, the authors interviewed 19 social media managers in education, health and social service nonprofit organizations to identify the varieties in service co-creation realized. Second, the authors surveyed 73 nonprofit organizations on social media and gathered 267 useable responses, which were used to analyze and validate the identified forms of service co-creation.

The authors found that nonprofit organizations realize up to seven forms of service co-creation using social media. These include co-ideating to tweak service ideas, co-diagnosing social needs and problems, co-assessing service events, co-transforming services to targeted communities, co-advocating for community and service reach, co-resourcing in service delivery, and co-experiencing through a pool of diverse service experiences.

This study develops a reliable and valid multidimensional measure for nonprofit service co-creation enabled by social media platforms. Theoretically, this study offers a nonprofit service co-creation model to drive nuanced explanatory research and service co-creation perspectives in other contexts and engagement platforms. Managerially, this research illustrates the variations in service co-creation, which inform the strategic value of social media to nonprofits and will assist nonprofit practitioners in planning and evaluating their service co-creation outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to access the present situation of the Pakistani population that suffers from vitamin D deficiency.

A review-based study was conducted based on publications from Pakistan between the years 2008 and 2018. The publications were archived from Pub Med and Google Scholar databases. A total of 18 publications were shortlisted, based on the cutoff values of vitamin D sufficiency, insufficiency and deficiency.

As per the data, 38.5 per cent of the participants were males, 48.7 per cent were females and 12.8 per cent of the studies have not mentioned the genders of the participants. The cumulative results show that 58.17 per cent (95 per cent CI: 52.17, 64.16) of the population is vitamin D-deficient and 26.65 per cent (95 per cent CI: 21.63, 31.66) is insufficient in vitamin D. The highest level of vitamin D deficiency was reported from Sindh (62.15 per cent), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (60.57 per cent), Punjab (51.75 per cent) and the Federal Capital (49.25 per cent). Moreover, Cochran’s Q test indicated considerable heterogeneity (p = >0.001) with regard to Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) prevalence found among samples from the selected studies.

The present analysis suggests that more than half of the Pakistani population suffers from VDD, which, thus, should be considered as an epidemic and treated likewise.

The aim of the case is to understand the performance management system of academic staff members in higher education institution. Furthermore, students would be able to compare two performance appraisal policies and analyze which one could better serve the purpose considering the context of educational institution. The case would help students understand the performance dynamics of the academic staff and how the performance management system in place affect employees.

The case study presents a troubling situation faced by Asim Khan, a newly appointed director of the Midland University, regarding retention of the faculty. Upon joining Midland, Khan noticed a trend that faculty who was serving the university from many years are leaving the organization one after the other. He decided to revise the faculty policies that he believed was the root cause of faculty turnover in Midland. He formulated a committee to review the existing policies and revamp if required. The committee identified some flaws in the faculty appraisal policy in place at that time and formulated a new one with the consultation of top management. However, when the new appraisal policy was presented to the faculty, few faculty members raised their eyes over a few aspects of the proposed policy. As the new academic year was approaching, Khan had to make an important decision after critically analyzing the pros and cons of both policies that which of the two should be followed for the upcoming year’s appraisals.

The case can potentially be used in the post-graduate courses in MBA programs offering a major in human resource management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

With a basis in conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of championing behaviour in the relationship between employees’ fear of terror and their job performance, as well as the buffering role of their passion for work, as a personal resource, in this process.

The tests of the hypotheses rely on three-wave, time-lagged data collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan.

An important reason that concerns about terrorist attacks diminish performance is that employees refrain from championing their own entrepreneurial ideas. This mediating role of idea championing is less salient, however, to the extent that employees feel a strong passion for their work.

For human resource managers, this study pinpoints a key mechanism – a reluctance to mobilize active support for entrepreneurial ideas – by which fears about terrorism attacks can spill over into the workplace and undermine employees’ ability to meet their performance requirements. It also reveals how this mechanism can be better contained by the presence of adequate personal resources.

This study adds to burgeoning research on the interplay between terrorism and organizational life by specifying how and when employees’ ruminations about terrorism threats might escalate into diminished performance outcomes at work.

This paper aims to analyze the adoption of social media platforms by tourists in Pakistan. Based on an adaptation of the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study assesses the factors that lead users to adopt these platforms.

A survey was administered to a convenience sample of 399 travelers who use social media in Pakistan. A Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using AMOS to evaluate convergent and discriminant validity as well as composite reliability. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the causal relationship among all proposed constructs.

The findings reveal that the perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEoU) of a social media platform positively impact the behavioral intention of its users. The proposed constructs of compatibility, enjoyment, user expertise and e-trust all demonstrated their crucial roles in the adoption of a social media platform for tourism-related activities by enhancing the platform's PEoU and usefulness.

This research validates the relationship between PEoU and PU of a social media platform in the hospitality industry. Interestingly, this study has expanded TAM by validating the addition of four more constructs, (1) compatibility, (2) enjoyment, (3) e-trust, and (4) expertise, to add worth to this model regarding the understanding of social media usage in this specific industry. The findings are valuable both for managers and policymakers in the tourism sector in Pakistan, as the latter can utilize the results to entice a larger segment of social media users to the tourism industry.

Leadership has a decisive role in the success of all types of businesses and firms, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the ethical behavior of leaders is a key component which brings a sense of respect, fulfillment, trustworthiness and acceptance among the employees, which later become visible in their job performance (JP). This study aims to check the immediate effect of ethical leadership (EL) on employee’s JP (EJP) and also explore the indirect mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on this EL and EJP nexus.

Primary data was obtained from the employees of manufacturing SMEs of Northern Italy using a cross-sectional design from the end of 2019 to the start of 2020. This paper circulated 450 self-administered questionnaires using simple random sampling, and 202 (44.88%) valid questionnaires were returned. The PROCESS macro was performed using statistical package for social sciences to ensure whether or not EL affects EJP and is there any mediation effect of CSR present in this nexus.

The results indicate that EL has a strong positive connection with EJP and CSR. Interestingly, CSR positively influences EJP. Furthermore, the results also report the strong mediating effect of CSR in the nexus of EL and EJP.

This scholarly work seeks to contribute not only to the literature of EL and EJP but also enriches the understanding of this EL-EJP association by highlighting the indirect effect of mediating variable CSR in the SME sector.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of big data (BD) analytics capabilities (BDACs) on green supply chain integration (GSCI) and green innovation (GI) in the context of a developing country, Jordan. In addition, the mediating effect of GSCI on the relationship between BDAC and GI is investigated.

Data collection was carried out through a survey with 300 respondents from food and beverages manufacturing firms located in Jordan. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied to analyze the collected data. Natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory was the adopted theoretical lens for this study.

The results revealed that BDAC positively and significantly affects both GSCI and GI. In addition, the results demonstrated that GSCI positively and significantly affects GI. Further, it is also found that GSCI positively and significantly mediates the relationship between BDAC and GI.

This study developed a theoretical and empirical model to investigate the relationship between BDAC, GSCI and GI. This study offers new theoretical and managerial contributions that add value to the supply chain (SC) management literature by testing the mediation model in food and beverages manufacturing firms located in Jordan.

Recent research validates an increasing knowledge of environmental concerns in manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, only a few studies maintain that green human resource management (HRM) practices and corporate social responsibility (CSR) play an important role, especially in the case of developing economies. Thus, this study aims to examine the direct and indirect relationship between green HRM practices and environmental sustainability (ES) through the mediation of CSR in SMEs in Pakistan.

The cross-sectional design of this study considers the mechanism by which green HRM practices affect ES through CSR in the context of Pakistani SMEs. The authors collected data from 320 manufacturing SMEs and used the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique to examine the relationship between variables.

The empirical findings of this study suggest green HRM practices have a positive and significant impact on ES. Further, the second hypothesis is not supported. In addition to the direct impact, the indirect effect of green HRM practices on CSR is positive and significant. Finally, the authors determine that green HRM practices affect ES through the partial mediation of CSR.

To date, this study is the first to use CSR as a mediator between green HRM practices and ES in the context of Pakistani SMEs. The study has important implications for HRM and government policy makers, suggesting they should improve strategies in favour of the green economy. Furthermore, developing countries could design similar studies with different future sustainability factors.

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) technology envisions a network in which sensors continuously operate on and obtained critical physical and physiological readings. Sensors deployed in WBANs have restricted resources such as battery energy, computing power and bandwidth. We can utilize these resources efficiently. By devising a mechanism that is energy efficient with following characteristics, i.e. computational complexity is less, routing overhead is minimized, and throughput will be maximum. A lot of work has been done in this area but still WBAN faces some challenges like mobility, network lifetime, transmission range, heterogeneous environment, and limited resources. In the present years well, contemplative studies have been made through a large body to reach some holistic points pertaining to the energy consumption in WBAN. Thus we/put forward appropriate algorithm for energy efficiency which can vividly corroborate the advances in this specific domain. We have also focused on various aspects and phases of the studies like study computational complexity, routing overhead and throughput type of characteristics. There is still a room for improvement to get the desired energy optimization in WBAN. The network performance mainly relies upon the algorithm used for optimization process. In this work, we intended to develop an energy optimization algorithm for energy consumption in WBAN which is based on evolutionary algorithms for inter-BAN communications using cluster-based routing protocol.

In this paper we propose a meta heuristics algorithm Goa to solve the optimization problem in WBAN. Grasshopper is an insect. Generally, this insect is viewed individually and creating large swarm in nature. Figure 5 shows the individual grasshoppers' primitive patterns in swarm. Figure 7 depicts the pseudo code of Goa. In Goa, experiments are done to view the behavior of grasshoppers in swarm. How they gradually move towards the stationary and mobile target. Through experimentation it is conceived that swarm gradually converge towards their target. Another interesting pattern related to convergence of grasshopper is that it slowly towards its target. This shows that grasshopper does not trapped in local optima. In starting iterations of exploration process Goa, search globally and in last iterations it searches local optima. Goa makes the exploration and exploitation process balanced while solving challenging optimization problems.

Energy efficiency is achieved in the optimization process of cluster formation process. As the use of proposed algorithm Goa creates the optimal number of clusters. Shorter cluster lifetime means more times clustering procedure is called. It increases the network computational cost and the communication overhead. Experimentation results show that proposed Goa algorithm performs well. We compare the results of Goa with existing optimization Algorithms ACO and MFO. Results are generated using MATLAB.

A lot of work has done for the sake of energy optimization in WBAN. Many algorithms are proposed in past for energy optimization of WBAN. All of them have some strengths and weaknesses. In this paper we propose a nature inspired algorithm Goa. We use the Goa algorithm for the sake of energy optimization in WBAN.